Press Report #1 & 2
Wednesday 7th October 2009

After many years of sterling service to Basingstoke and District Table Tennis League as Registration Secretary, Dave Kimberley has recently retired from work and has decided to step back from table tennis administration as well. This is an important but little understood role that Dave has performed excellently over the years and the committee is very grateful for his efforts. Dave is superseded in this role by another long-standing committee member, Ron Powell.

In Division 1 of the league, last year’s winners St Peters A followed up on their 10-0 defeat of KG B last week with a solid 7-3 win over Queens A. Sean Pickin and James Wright both lost out to Queens’ Tony Palaczky, who also teamed up with brother Alan to win the doubles match. Only Peter Matthews was unbeaten on the night.

Meanwhile, newly promoted St Peters B were again finding life in Division 1 hard, having lost 9-1 to Hannington last week. This time it was Alpha Cars who drove home the advantage to win 2-8. The Alpha Cars team featured former league champion Kevin Macken making a welcome return to the Basingstoke table tennis scene. Paul Rattue and Macken did most of the damage with 3 points apiece as well as a confident doubles win.

On paper, Minitec B had a slight advantage over visitors Hannington and that showed in the result with Minitec finishing 6-4 winners. A sound performance from Norman Swift gave him a full 3 points, with 2 from Ian Short and 1 from Gary Livingstone.

In Division 2, the new Basingstoke Hindu Society A team took all 10 points available from another new team KG F. Mohak Dalesh, Kanti Mistri and Sav Thevendria made relatively light work of the opposition although juniors Charlie Morrison and Tristan Noon put up a spirited defence.

Basingstoke Hindu Society B team did not fare so well at home to the experienced Portals team or Gary Walters, Steve Redstall and John Blunden. Dipan Lakhani scored his side’s only point of the evening, and Jitu Patel was unlucky not to do the same losing 3-2 to Walters. 

The new KG E team of Peter Millie, with juniors Josh Manson and Tristan Noon hosted a Queens D team of Lorainne Mortimer, Bill Bavister and Celia Hooker in a very keenly-contested, but good-natured match which resulted in a very fair 5-5 draw. Noon made a terrific start to his season, taking 2 points off Bavister and Mortimer, while Manson also secured a win over Bavister.

Queens C fielded a new line up comprising new player Kieth Cutmore, returning player Mike Chamberlain and old hand Nigel Cooper against another reshuffled KG D team of Mike Wood, returning player Dave Partridge and Josh Manson. This was a very close match with 4 individual matches going to 4 games and another 4 needing 5 games to decide the result. Manson again showed great promise, scoring another singles point by as well as aiding Wood in a fine doubles win over Cutmore and Chamberlain. Final result 5-5.

Catch up on all the latest table tennis news in Basingstoke by visiting the league website: www.basingstokett.co.uk